Indian restaurant Junoon in New York wins another Wine Spectator Award

August 22, 2016 –Winning accolades is not something new for chef Vikas Khanna’s Michelin-starred restaurant Junoon in New York. Khanna started Junoon in 2009, in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, New York. Recently, the Indian eatery received yet another Wine Spectator award. It was also awarded “two glasses” which stand for “Best of Award of Excellence.”

Their Instagram post noted that it was “an honour to receive a Wine Spectator award for the 6th consecutive year and our 2nd year being awarded 2 glasses! Congrats to our team and Wine Director Michael Dolinski for his passion in highlighting the beautiful relationship between wine and Indian cuisine!”

The award comes at an opportune moment because just last week, Junoon’s chef de cuisine also won “Chopped” – a reality-based cooking show on television. For the restaurant that has been awarded a Michelin star for six consecutive years since 2010, this award is yet another feather in their cap.

Chef Vikas Khanna

According to the restaurant’s official website, Junoon, named after the Hindi term for passion, is a contemporary restaurant with a menu of traditional and modern Indian cuisine that “showcases centuries of India’s culinary history while exploring the future of this classic cuisine.”

Joining the ranks of celebrated chefs like Massimo Bottura and Jamie Oliver, Chef Vikas Khanna was recently featured in a list of the “world’s most iconic chefs” by Germany’s international broadcasting company, Deutsche Welle. Khanna is an award winning, Michelin starred Indian chef, restaurateur, cookbook writer, filmmaker, humanitarian and the judge of the TV show MasterChef India Season 2, 3, 4 and Masterchef Junior. Based in New York City, he was named among People magazine’s list of Sexiest Men Alive in 2011 and was also referred to as “The Hottest Chef of America.”

“Despite the accolades, most people would not expect to find a dynamic and modern wine programme at an Indian restaurant,” said Junoon’s beverage director Michael Dolinski in an article in Sommelier India August-September 2015. “Yet, here at Junoon, we firmly believe that wine and Indian cuisine not only can be paired, but that they will produce combinations which raise each to a new level in much the same manner as might be said of French or Italian cuisine.”